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DI Romney to vent my spleen (again).

He Made Me, the second in my Booker and Cash series, has now had its final read-through. It has been formatted; it has its table of contents and back and front matter, and is awaiting uploading to Amazon. But I can’t upload it yet because I still don’t have the cover. Because I don’t have the cover or any idea of when it’s coming I can’t even say when I’ll be putting the book out there. That’s all a little frustrating. I worry that if I were to be killed by a bus when I take the Halfling to the park today then my biggest regret as I waited patiently in line at the pearly gates for my one way ticket in the elevator going down would be that He Made Me would die with me. (I know, not much of a life, eh? Sorry kids. There it is.)

In the meantime, I’m bashing away at R&M#5. I’m thirty thousand words in and it’s going well. Romney is still cantankerous. Marsh is still respectfully patient (for the most part). Grimes is still…fat. Boudicca is still ginger. Dover and district is still keeping CID busy.

Almost four years ago I wrote something of the non-fiction variety. It concerns a theory I have regarding intelligence. I’ve held this theory dear ever since I thought it up and I only see examples in daily life to reinforce my belief in it. It is not something that I could hope to publish, even self-publish, without upsetting most of the people who would probably read it. Until now.

Enter DI Romney. He is the perfect mouthpiece to give voice and credence to my theory. It is exactly the sort of theory that he would come up with. (The more I write about him the more I realise that Romney and I are not so unalike.) Since I accepted that I wouldn’t be able make my theory known through conventional channels I have been toying with the idea of introducing it in one of my books. I won’t be talked out of it. But what I must do now is to find a way of incorporating it into the narrative without it seeming contrived and I must not let Romney stay on that soap box too long. I have to distil my ten thousand word rant into a couple of meaningful paragraphs. Yesterday, I realised that I’m nearly at a place in the book that would be perfect for it. I’m looking forward to that particular ‘literary’ exercise with some relish.

It’s a lovely sunny, still day here in Shitstanbul. I’m off out to the park with the Halfling, a walk along the seafront and then a coffee outside somewhere. It’s not a bad life.

As for your theory on intelligence I can’t wait to hear what you and Romney have to say on the matter. I have my own theory about intelligence and I’d love to air that at some point, along with the lack of general knowledge most young people have these days. I could go on for hours about the education system, social background, what aspirations parents have for their children. Perhaps we ought to have a separate forum to air our theories with each other. Could end up being a sociological block-buster.

🙂 Don’t get me started on the woeful lack of general knowledge of children. We would need a separate forum and I’d have to contribute anonymously. These days I find the trick is not to care. It’s less depressing.

Two more good stories in the pipeline is great news, especially as your Booker And Cash and Romney And Marsh books are favourites of mine. It’s a shame that people (who don’t know your writing) will judge a book by it’s cover, so please look both ways and look again, before crossing smartly.
I am really, interested in your theory on intelligence, something which I have long questioned as someone who left school at 15 without even a cycling proficiency badge, but later employed university graduates and who is now married to a PhD. I hope that you don’t have to condense it too much.
I like what you have done there with Shitstanbul. I like doing the same thing myself, for years I lived in what was then the very prosperous town of Dunstable in Bedfordshire. Today, all of the factories, printing firms etc., have closed down and now it’s a crumbling shadow of it’s former self, so I have renamed it Dumpstable. These days I live in Switzerland, where everything cost way over the odds, so for me, I always call the place Swizzland.
Enjoy your day out. Russell

Hi Russell
No accidents. Thanks for caring.
I’ve had some good conversations regarding my take on the intelligence issue over a few beers with colleagues here. They even accepted some of it. I hope you’ll understand if I save the details for the book. Now I just have to make Romney do it justice.
I have family members from older generations who left school with little or no great formal education and who are a lot more globally’intelligent’ (whatever that really means) than I am. It’s an interesting topic. I also know some highly educated people who make the stupidest decisions in their own lives.
Shitstanbul aka İstanbullshit depending on my mood and the weather.
I think what our suggestions show is that there could be a lot of mileage in that word game.
Best wishes.